Determining streaming content user consumption

ABSTRACT

Confidence of attentiveness of a consumer of a media object on a media playback device is estimated by detecting a user action performed on a mobile computing device while or soon after the media objects are presented; responsive to the user action detection, retrieving descriptors for the media object; correlating the detected user action and the descriptors; if sufficiently correlated, determining a degree of confidence that the user is attentive to the media object; and recording the one user action, the media object descriptors, and the degree of confidence into digital results into computer memory.

This is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/231,410, filed on Aug. 8, 2016, by Jeremy A. Greenberger, et al. Thisinvention relates generally to methods and systems for determining, witha level of confidence, whether a user of a mobile device is attentive ofstreaming content such as a television broadcast, an online video, aradio broadcast, or an online audio channel.

BACKGROUND

It is valuable information to know if a user is actually attentive to astreaming media, such as a television station, online broadcast, oraudio channel, or if the device receiving the streaming media is simplyunattended. Proximity of the user to the receiving device is notentirely indicative of the user paying attention to the media, whereasthe media may be being played to a window on a screen which is minimizedor covered by another window, and/or the audio may be muted or played ata minimal volume.

The knowledge of what a user actually views or hears versus what he orshe ignores is critical to many producers of media so that they canimprove their products and services for increased consumer affinity.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSED EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS ACCORDING TO THEINVENTION

The disclosed and illustrated exemplary embodiments according to thepresent invention estimate a confidence level of attentiveness of aconsumer of a media object on a media playback device by detecting auser action performed on a mobile computing device while or soon afterthe media objects are presented; responsive to the user actiondetection, retrieving descriptors for the media object; correlating thedetected user action and the descriptors; if sufficiently correlated,determining a degree of confidence that the user is attentive to themedia object; and recording the one user action, the media objectdescriptors, and the degree of confidence into digital results intocomputer memory.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures presented herein, when considered in light of thisdescription, form a complete disclosure of one or more embodiments ofthe invention, wherein like reference numbers in the figures representsimilar or same elements or steps.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary constellation of computers, processes,and data communications networks according to at least one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a user action correlatoraccording to at least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of correlation processesaccording to at least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 depicts a computer-based embodiment according to the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT(S) OF THE INVENTION

Problems Recognized

The inventors have recognized that, today, there are very few solutionsto gain insight as to what a person is watching on a television at anygiven moment, or if they are watching at all. Just because a TV is on ina person's house, does not mean they are paying attention to the contentor are interested. Accurately determining a person's viewing habits andpreferences will enable development of immersive television viewingexperiences. The embodiments of the present invention disclosed hereinprovide valuable improvements to the accuracy of several technologiesused cooperatively during the determination of a consumer's viewing andlistening patterns, habits, and preferences, such that the technologiesthemselves are improved through embodiment of the present invention.

General Principles of Operation

A First Class of Embodiments. The present inventors have realized thattoday's viewers and listeners to streaming media, including contenttransmitted over wired networks and wireless networks, alike, ofteninteract electronically with other users, with other digital resources,or both, while actively watching or listening to the streaming media.For example, the inventors recognized that a user may send an instantmessage, such as a Twitter™ Tweet™, post a comment on a social mediaaccount, such as a Facebook™ account, or access a website or performsearch for information, such as using Google™ or Wikipedia™. Accordingto the inventors' realization, the nature of these user actions may ormay not be related to the content of the current or recently streamedmedia, but if the nature of a user action can be determined to berelated to the recently streamed media, then that is a strong indicationthat the user is paying attention to the streaming media. Further, iflocation determination such as Global Positioning System (GPS) orproximity beacons (e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy beacons) are incorporatedto the system, additional confidence can be obtained about whether ornot the user is actually paying attention to the streaming media.

As such, the present inventors have devised a solution to meet theunsatisfied needs in the art to determine not only whether or not a useris likely attentive to a streaming media, but also a confidence factorfor that determination. The following several embodiments fall withinthe scope of the present invention, and as such, they are illustrationsof various embodiments but do not limit the scope of the inventionitself.

Generally speaking, embodiments according to the present inventionmonitor sources of media streams such as a television stations, anon-demand video source servers, a radio stations, and audio streamingservice servers. Methods of monitoring the streaming content at suchsources are well known, and are hereby incorporated into thisdisclosure. Many embodiments according to the invention will operatesolely from metadata from the sources describing the media objects theyare streaming or broadcasting (now or recently).

It is also possible in some embodiments to further confirm what is beingreceived by users' streaming players, set top TV decoder boxes, etc. Forexample, some set-top cable television boxes can report or be polled asto their status (on or off) and what channel they are tuned to.Similarly, digital radios, such as some in-dash car radios, are capableof reporting the same status and tuning information, and manyapplications for mobile devices and computers for receiving personalizedplay lists and on-demand video source can report what is currentlyplaying through the application, and some extensions and helperapplications for web browsers can also report such connections andreceiving status information.

However, just because a particular receiver reports that it is receivinga particular media object, it is still unknown if the user is actuallyattentive to the media object being played or rendered at the receivingdevice (e.g., many cable TV customers leave their cable decoder boxturned on all the time and just turn of the TV).

Embodiments of the invention may utilize these and other availablemethods to gain insight into what media is currently being streamed,broadcasted, received (recently and presently).

A mobile computing device, such as a smart cell phone or tabletcomputer, which is associated with a user of the media playback device,is monitored for time-relevant user actions, such as current actionsand/or recent actions taken by the user. Actions of interest include,but are not limited to, submitting search criteria to search enginewebsites and applications (“apps”), creating events in a locally-storedor remotely-stored electronic calendar, launching applications on themobile device (e.g., related games, related retail sales applications,related poll taking applications, etc.), authoring new electronicmessages or responding to received electronic messages (e.g., ShortMessage Service “text messages”, multi-media messages, short messagessuch as “Tweets”™ and Instagrams™, and streaming messages such asPeriscope™ and web chats), creating or responding to social media postson social media servers or using social media apps, casting anelectronic vote, visiting or navigating to a website or Uniform ResourceLocator (URL), accessing another media object (e.g., video, music, appdownload), and initiating a telephone call.

There are a number of known mechanisms which can be employed byembodiments of the present invention to accomplish this user actionmonitoring, such as application programming interfaces (APIs) providedby some online servers to access user information in near real-time,similar APIs provided by mobile device operating systems that provideaccess to user activity, having the user add a monitoring portion of theembodiment to their “friends” list, and sharing the user's log incredentials with the monitoring portion of the embodiment. For example,at least two of the currently most popular social media online servicesprovide application programs with a REpresentational State Transfer(REST) API for obtaining copies in near real-time of social media postsand/or instant messages authored, responded to, forwarded and read by auser. Various embodiments of the present invention may utilize any ofthese methods, as well as others which may become available or arecurrently available, in greater or less combination to accomplish thetask of detecting user actions while the streaming media is beingreceived by the media playback device.

Next, when the embodiment of the invention detects that a user actionhas been performed on the mobile device, the embodiment determines fromthe ascertainable descriptors of the currently-received media object atthe media playback device if the action was relevant to a currently orrecently transmitted or broadcast media object according to the source,and, optionally, confirmed as a received media object. This can be donein the first order by comparing meta-data descriptors for the mediaobject to the meta-data and data of the user action, such as comparingthe title and the names of the actors, singers or speakers of the mediaobject to the website URL or content of a social media posting ormessage created by the user (or forwarded, or responded to, etc.). In asecond order, more information can be obtained about the media object bythe embodiment of the invention posting a query to an API for anothercomputer service to provide more information, such as searching aninternet movie database using some known meta-data descriptors about themedia object to obtain additional descriptors about the media object(e.g., date of release, producer name, studio name, genre, etc.). In athird order of relevancy determination, embodiments of the invention mayalso perform advanced analysis or request advanced analysis to beperformed on the media object to generate more descriptors, such astext-to-speech recognition on an audio stream or audio track of a movie,image recognition of faces, buildings, and object in frames of a videostream, etc. Embodiments of the present invention may utilize any or allof these and other available methods and technologies to obtain shallowto deep descriptive data about the media object being received (orrecently received) by the media playback device.

Once a threshold of relevancy has been determined by one or more ordersof comparison of descriptors for the media object with the one or moremonitored and detected user actions on the mobile device, it is stillnot known with certainty if the user is actually paying attention to thereceived media object, or just potentially coincidentally performingsome user actions which have some commonality (keywords, favoritewebsites, etc.). It is therefore an improvement beyond the presentlyavailable media consumer monitoring technology to determine a degree ofconfidence whether or not the user is actually paying attention to thecurrent or recent media object on the media playback device.

According to the inventors' solution, if a user action is determined tobe at least minimally relevant to the currently-received orrecently-received media object, the embodiment of the invention proceedsto perform analytic analysis on various available metrics to produce adegree of confidence if the device's owner is attending to the datastream. For example, such metrics which can be employed in the analyticanalysis can include but are not limited to an amount of time elapsedbetween when the media object (or a point within the media object) istransmitted to or received by the media playback device; the strength(strong, weak, neutral) of the relevancy of the user action to thedescriptors of the media object (e.g., use of specific brand, actor orplace names; use of specific movie, show, episode or song titles, etc.);a number of times a relevant user action has been performed; and howmany other known associates (e.g., social media friends, the user'smessaging contact list entries, etc.) are concurrently performingrelevant user actions to the media object.

This determination of relevancy and degree of confidence is thenprovided to one or more reports, other client devices, and/or otherclient application programs, thereby enabling additional improvementsand enhancements such as, but not limited to creating push notificationsrelative to the channel a person is watching, suggesting favorite typesof shows/channels a person likes to watch, calculating how muchtelevision or radio a person consumes in a day, determining when a usertypically watches television or consumes media objects, generatingstatistics on viewer demographics for companies that are tailoringadvertisements to specific groups of users; and determining if nearbyusers are consuming the same media objects at the same time.

It should be noted that embodiments of the present invention can operateacross many data streams (channels), such as a user switching betweenchannels (serial consumption) or having multiple channels and mediaobjects being played simultaneously (parallel consumption). Theembodiment of the invention may provide some measure of the degree ofconfidence as to which of the several media objects are getting any ormost of the user's attention, presuming that the media objectsdifferentiate from each other in their descriptors.

An additional improvement to other services and technologies which areenabled by embodiments of the present invention is that the confidencedegree measurement can assist other client devices and clientapplications to determine which position(s) within the media objects(movies, songs, lectures, discussions, advertisements, etc.) is/are mosteffective at generating user response and user action, which can lead tobetter insight as to which markets will create the best return oninvestment for brands, which arguments will generate the most persuasiveresponse to users, and which scenes or chapters will become iconic of amedia object.

A Second Class of Embodiments. Still further improvements in thetechnologies of measuring and determining viewership, readership andlistener affinity and habits can be obtained in a second class ofembodiments which utilize some or all of the functions and features ofthe foregoing first class of embodiments, but which also use locationbased services to further increase the confidence factor determination.

For example, if both the media playback device and the mobile device arethe same physical device, then the locations of the two are known to beexactly the same. However, in many realistic scenarios, the mediaplayback device (e.g., a cable set-top box or a digital radio) and themobile device (e.g., a smart phone or a tablet computer) are notphysically the same device, and one or both of the two devices may berelocated from time to time.

So, if the two devices are determined to be outside of proximity to eachother, such as the user is away from home with his or her smart phonebut left his or her cable box on and tuned to a particular channel backat their home, then the degree of confidence that the user is actuallypaying attention to the received media content on the cable TV receiveris lessened. Conversely, if the two devices are determined to be withina certain proximity, physical or geographical, of each other, then theconfidence factor can be suitably increased accordingly.

A number of available technologies can be incorporated into embodimentsof the invention in this second class to achieve this proximitydetermination and additional adjustment to the rendered confidencefactor. For example, a global positioning position (GPS) reading for theuser's mobile device can be compared to the geographical address knownto be associated with user's cable television account where the cable TVreceive set-top box is likely located. Or, internet protocol (IP)addresses and subnet addresses on a home, office, public or hotelnetwork can be compared for both devices to see if they are connected tothe same local area network or the same intranet. Other location basedservices technologies, such as proximity to a Bluetooth Low Energybeacon (BLE), can be utilized to see if both devices are within physicalproximity of each other.

Using these location determination technologies, and optionally others,embodiments of the present invent may determine if the two devices arewithin a maximum proximity to each other, and if so, increase the degreeof confidence value such as incrementing it or multiplying it by alocation factor. Conversely, if the locations of the two devices aredetermined to be outside a minimal physical distance to each other, theembodiment of the invention may decrease the degree of confidence valuesuch as decrementing it or dividing it by a location factor.

A Third Class of Embodiments. In still another group of embodimentsaccording to the present invention, aggregation of actions acrossmultiple users and comparison of those actions in real-time to knownbroadcast and streaming media metadata can yield viewership certainty ona group basis. For example, if a group of users who are demographicallyof an age group “young teens” are detected making one or more useractions (texting, posting, commenting, etc.) regarding a particulartelevision show, then an embodiment of the invention may search metadatadescribing currently (and/or recently) broadcast and streamed mediaobjects to find a correlation between the aggregation of the useractions and the metadata. In this class of embodiments, again, no actualdata connections to the users' streaming players or broadcast receiversare necessary because additional certainty regarding the estimation ofviewership is obtained by using a sufficiently large sample of users(e.g., a threshold of group size taking relevant user actions).

Specific Example Embodiments

Referring now to FIG. 1, a particular example embodiment of coordinatedsystems, methods and processes is shown. While the user's media objectreceiver (102) such as a cable TV box, a digital radio, or a streamingmedia device or app is receiving audio and/or video media content from astreaming server or broadcast station (201, 202), the user's mobiledevice (101) such as a smart phone or tablet computer is monitored for auser action by a user action correlator (501). Monitored and detecteduser actions can include any combination, but are not limited to,launching of one or more local application programs (101 a) on theuser's mobile device (101); creating, accepting, editing or modifyingone or more events in a local or remotely maintained electronic calendar(301); sending, receiving, replying to, forwarding, or tagging anelectronic message (302); submitting search criteria to a search engine(303) or database; creating, responding to, commenting on, reposting,forwarding, blocking, reporting, or deleting an entry in a social mediaaccount on a social media server (304) or through a local social mediaapp; navigating to a particular website (305) or URL by direct browseraddress entry or selection of a hyperlink; and/or casting an electronicvote to a voting server (306) or via a local voting app.

When a user action such as these is detected during or soon afterreception of a media object, the user action correlator (501) determinesthe relevancy of the user actions to the received media object aspreviously described, and if minimally relevant, then additionalanalytics (502) are performed as previously described using one or moreadditional metrics (503) to increase or decrease a confidence factorthat the user is (or was recently) actually paying attention to themedia object being played or rendered by the user's media playbackdevice (102).

The results of the analytics are then posted by a confidence server(503) as one or more reports (505), such as machine-readable and/orhuman-readable outputs to printers, files, and displays. And,embodiments of the invention may provide electronic information viamessages, database entries, or API responses to one or more clientapplication programs (504) and/or one or more client devices (506) forfurther enhanced analysis as previously described.

Referring now to FIG. 2, additional details of an exemplary embodimentof a user action correlator (501) are shown, in which the monitored anddetected user actions (301-306) are aggregated (5012), includingoptionally notices (5011) from the user's mobile devices operatingsystem of launched application programs, and in which descriptors of thecurrently-streaming or recently-streamed media object(s) (201, 202) arealso aggregated. These subjected to one or more correlation processes(5013) to each in a time-based manner, such as the methods previouslydescribed, and when a minimal correlation of at least one user actionand one media object is detected, corresponding information about therelevant user action(s) and media object(s) is/are forwarded to theanalytics portion (502) of the embodiment of the invention.

Now referring to FIG. 3, further details of an exemplary embodiment ofthe correlation processes (5013) is shown, in which the detected actionsfrom the user action aggregator (5012) and the media object descriptoraggregator (5014) are received into the process (600, 601), and theinitial relevance is determined (602) as previously described. Theconfidence level regarding the user's attention or inattention to themedia object(s) is initialized (603), and it may be increased anddecreased (604, 605) using one or more of the additional analyticalphases or steps as previously described, including, optionally,consideration of user actions by additional known associate users (e.g.,friends list entries, etc.) (605) and/or the location proximityanalysis, also previously described.

Finally, reports (505) and/or output data structures such as messages,database entries, and push notifications to client devices (506) and/orapplication programs (504) are generated (606), including one or morepairs of correlated user actions and media objects with an associateddegree of confidence for each pair.

It should be noted that data communications shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3may include local area networks, intranets, an Internet, and one or morewireless networks, as appropriate for each specific embodiment, and thateach embodiment uses the coordinated computer functions to improve theperformance of the aforementioned viewership analysis systems and solvescertain problems directly relevant to computer networks as describedherein.

Hardware Product Embodiments. Embodiments according to the presentinvention may be realized in part or whole through electronic hardwarecircuitry, such as microprocessor-based circuitry, microcontroller-basedcircuitry, programmable logic arrays, custom circuits, and combinationsthereof. Additionally, in the several figures, references to a “server”are to a hardware computer running one or more application programswhich, together, perform the functions of a server computer. The severalservers may be several distinctly separate computers running separateserver application programs, or they may be combined into fewer hardwarecomputer(s) which are capable of executing the functionality of multipleserver application programs.

Referring to FIG. 4, a computer-based embodiment according to thepresent invention is illustrated, in which one or more data and networkinterfaces (4015) (SCSI, PCI, IDE, Ethernet, WiFi, USB, cellular data,etc.) received detections of user actions and media object descriptionsinto system memory devices (4010, 4011, respectively), optionallyenabled by a memory management unit (4013) (DMA controller, memoryhandler processor, etc.). One or more processors (4012) with programmemory (4014) storing one or more program instructions coupled withoptional functions committed to custom integrated circuits and/orprogrammable logic devices (PALs, PLDs, etc.) (4014) are configured toperform the logical functions described in the foregoing paragraphs. Theresults of the analytics performed by the processor (4012) and/or thelogical functions (4014) are then transmitted to one or more clientprocesses, client devices and/or reports via the data and networkinterface(s) (4015). As such, a specialized, processor-basedimplementation embodiment accomplishes the several objectives of thepresent invention.

Computer Program Product Embodiments. The present invention may be asystem, a method, and/or a computer program product at any possibletechnical detail level of integration. The computer program product mayinclude a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computerreadable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carryout aspects of the present invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, configuration data for integrated circuitry, oreither source code or object code written in any combination of one ormore programming languages, including an object oriented programminglanguage such as Smalltalk, C++, or the like, and procedural programminglanguages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programminglanguages. The computer readable program instructions may executeentirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as astand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partlyon a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. Inthe latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user'scomputer through any type of network, including a local area network(LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to anexternal computer (for example, through the Internet using an InternetService Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including,for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gatearrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute thecomputer readable program instructions by utilizing state information ofthe computer readable program instructions to personalize the electroniccircuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of theorder noted in the Figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

Conclusion. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describingparticular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of theinvention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” areintended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearlyindicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms“comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification,specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/orgroups thereof, unless specifically stated otherwise.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. Thedescription of the present invention has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Theembodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

It should also be recognized by those skilled in the art that certainembodiments utilizing a microprocessor executing a logical process mayalso be realized through customized electronic circuitry performing thesame logical process or processes.

It will be readily recognized by those skilled in the art that theforegoing example embodiments do not define the extent or scope of thepresent invention, but instead are provided as illustrations of how tomake and use at least one embodiment of the invention. The followingclaims define the extent and scope of at least one invention disclosedherein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: detecting, by a computer, auser action on a user device, wherein the detected user action isindependent of one or more media objects transmitted via a computernetwork to the user device; retrieving, by a computer, from a mediaobject server, one or more media object descriptors for the one or moremedia objects; determining, by a computer, a correlation of the detecteduser action to the one or more retrieved media descriptors; responsiveto the correlation of the detected user action to the one or moreretrieved media descriptors meeting a first threshold, determining, by acomputer, a degree of confidence that the user is paying attention to atleast one of the one or more media objects, wherein the degree ofconfidence that the user is paying attention is determined by performinganalytic analysis on one or more available metrics, and further whereinthe one or more available metrics include at least one of an amount oftime elapsed between the reception of the media object on the mediadevice and the user action, and a number of times the user action hasbeen performed; and responsive to the degree of confidence that the useris paying attention to at least one of the one or more media objectsmeeting a second threshold, recording, by a computer, the user action,the one or more correlated media object descriptors, and the degree ofconfidence into one or more digital results in computer memory.
 2. Themethod as set forth in claim 1 wherein the one or more media objects aretransmitted to the user device by one or more transmission modesselected from the group consisting of currently streaming, currentlybroadcasting, recently streamed, and recently broadcasted.
 3. The methodas set forth in claim 1 wherein the media object server comprises one ormore servers selected from the group consisting of a streaming mediaserver and a broadcast server.
 4. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising: repeating, by a computer, the steps of detecting,retrieving, correlating, determining and recording for a plurality ofusers; and wherein the determining of the degree of confidence comprisesdetermining, by a computer, a degree of confidence that the plurality ofusers are attentive to at least one or more media objects.
 5. The methodas set forth in claim 1 wherein the detected user action comprises oneor more user actions selected from the group consisting of launching alocal application program on the mobile computing device, submittingsearch criteria to search engine website, submitting search criteria tosearch engine via a search engine application program, creating an eventin a locally-stored electronic calendar, modifying an event in alocally-stored electronic calendar, accepting an event in alocally-stored electronic calendar, creating an event in aremotely-stored electronic calendar, modifying an event in aremotely-stored electronic calendar, accepting an event in aremotely-stored electronic calendar, authoring an electronic message,reading an electronic message, forwarding an electronic message,replying to an electronic message, initiating a streaming message,receiving a streaming message, joining a streaming message, forwarding astreaming message, responding to a streaming message, creating a socialmedia post on a social media account, responding to a social media poston a social media account, reposting a social media post on a socialmedia account, setting a reaction indication to a social media post on asocial media account, deleting a social media post on a social mediaaccount, casting an electronic vote, visiting a website, visitingUniform Resource Locator (URL), selecting a hyperlink, accessing anadditional media object, and initiating a telephone call.
 6. The methodas set forth in claim 1 wherein the one or more transmitted mediaobjects comprise at least one media object selected from the groupconsisting of a streaming video object, a streaming audio object, anonline presentation, a broadcast television program, an electronicadvertisement, and a broadcast audio program.
 7. A computer programproduct comprising: a tangible, computer-readable memory device which isnot a propagating signal per se, accessible by a processor; programinstructions embodied by the memory device to cause the processor to,when executed, perform steps comprising: detect a user action on a userdevice, wherein the detected user action is independent of one or moremedia objects transmitted via a computer network to the user device;retrieve from a media object server, one or more media objectdescriptors for the one or more media objects; determine a correlationof the detected user action to the one or more retrieved mediadescriptors; responsive to the correlation of the detected user actionto the one or more retrieved media descriptors meeting a firstthreshold, determine a degree of confidence that the user is payingattention to at least one of the one or more media objects, wherein thedegree of confidence that the user is paying attention is determined byperforming analytic analysis on one or more available metrics, andfurther wherein the one or more available metrics include at least oneof an amount of time elapsed between the reception of the media objecton the media device and the user action, a strength of the correlationof the detected user action to the one or more retrieved mediadescriptors, a number of times the user action has been performed, and anumber of known associates of the user that are concurrently performingrelevant actions to the media object; and responsive to the degree ofconfidence that the user is paying attention to at least one of the oneor more media objects meeting a second threshold, record the useraction, the one or more correlated media object descriptors, and thedegree of confidence into one or more digital results in computermemory.
 8. The computer program product as set forth in claim 7 whereinthe one or more media objects are transmitted to the user device by oneor more transmission modes selected from the group consisting ofcurrently streaming, currently broadcasting, recently streamed, andrecently broadcasted.
 9. The computer program product as set forth inclaim 7 wherein the media object server comprises one or more serversselected from the group consisting of a streaming media server and abroadcast server.
 10. The computer program product of claim 7 whereinthe program instructions further comprise program instructions forcausing a processor to: repeat the detecting, retrieving, correlating,determining and recording for a plurality of users; and wherein thedetermining of the degree of confidence comprises determining, by acomputer, a degree of confidence that the plurality of users areattentive to at least one or more media objects.
 11. The computerprogram product of claim 7 wherein the detected user action comprisesone or more user actions selected from the group consisting of launchinga local application program on the mobile computing device, submittingsearch criteria to search engine website, submitting search criteria tosearch engine via a search engine application program, creating an eventin a locally-stored electronic calendar, modifying an event in alocally-stored electronic calendar, accepting an event in alocally-stored electronic calendar, creating an event in aremotely-stored electronic calendar, modifying an event in aremotely-stored electronic calendar, accepting an event in aremotely-stored electronic calendar, authoring an electronic message,reading an electronic message, forwarding an electronic message,replying to an electronic message, initiating a streaming message,receiving a streaming message, joining a streaming message, forwarding astreaming message, responding to a streaming message, creating a socialmedia post on a social media account, responding to a social media poston a social media account, reposting a social media post on a socialmedia account, setting a reaction indication to a social media post on asocial media account, deleting a social media post on a social mediaaccount, casting an electronic vote, visiting a website, visitingUniform Resource Locator (URL), selecting a hyperlink, accessing anadditional media object, and initiating a telephone call.
 12. Thecomputer program product of claim 7 wherein the media object comprisesat least one media object selected from the group consisting of astreaming video object, a streaming audio object, an onlinepresentation, a broadcast television program, an electronicadvertisement, and a broadcast audio program.
 13. A system comprising: acomputer processor for executing program instructions; a tangible,computer-readable memory device which is not a propagating signal perse, accessible by the processor; program instructions embodied by thememory device to cause the processor to, when executed, perform stepscomprising: detect a user action on a user device, wherein the detecteduser action is independent of one or more media objects transmitted viaa computer network to the user device; retrieve from a media objectserver, one or more media object descriptors for the one or more mediaobjects; determine a correlation of the detected user action to the oneor more retrieved media descriptors; responsive to the correlation ofthe detected user action to the one or more retrieved media descriptorsmeeting a first threshold, determine a degree of confidence that theuser is paying attention to at least one of the one or more mediaobjects, wherein the degree of confidence that the user is payingattention is determined by performing analytic analysis on one or moreavailable metrics, and further wherein the one or more available metricsinclude at least one of an amount of time elapsed between the receptionof the media object on the media device and the user action, a strengthof the correlation of the detected user action to the one or moreretrieved media descriptors, a number of times the user action has beenperformed, and a number of known associates of the user that areconcurrently performing relevant actions to the media object; andresponsive to the degree of confidence that the user is paying attentionto at least one of the one or more media objects meeting a secondthreshold, record the user action, the one or more correlated mediaobject descriptors, and the degree of confidence into one or moredigital results in computer memory.
 14. The system as set forth in claim13 wherein the one or more media objects are transmitted to the userdevice by one or more transmission modes selected from the groupconsisting of currently streaming, currently broadcasting, recentlystreamed, and recently broadcasted.
 15. The system as set forth in claim13 wherein the media object server comprises one or more serversselected from the group consisting of a streaming media server and abroadcast server.
 16. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein theprogram instructions further comprise program instructions for causing aprocessor to: repeat the detecting, retrieving, correlating, determiningand recording for a plurality of users; and wherein the determining ofthe degree of confidence comprises determining, by a computer, a degreeof confidence that the plurality of users are attentive to at least oneor more media objects.
 17. The system as set forth in claim 13 whereinthe detected user action comprises one or more user actions selectedfrom the group consisting of launching a local application program onthe mobile computing device, submitting search criteria to search enginewebsite, submitting search criteria to search engine via a search engineapplication program, creating an event in a locally-stored electroniccalendar, modifying an event in a locally-stored electronic calendar,accepting an event in a locally-stored electronic calendar, creating anevent in a remotely-stored electronic calendar, modifying an event in aremotely-stored electronic calendar, accepting an event in aremotely-stored electronic calendar, authoring an electronic message,reading an electronic message, forwarding an electronic message,replying to an electronic message, initiating a streaming message,receiving a streaming message, joining a streaming message, forwarding astreaming message, responding to a streaming message, creating a socialmedia post on a social media account, responding to a social media poston a social media account, reposting a social media post on a socialmedia account, setting a reaction indication to a social media post on asocial media account, deleting a social media post on a social mediaaccount, casting an electronic vote, visiting a website, visitingUniform Resource Locator (URL), selecting a hyperlink, accessing anadditional media object, and initiating a telephone call.
 18. The systemas set forth in claim 13 wherein the media object comprises at least onemedia object selected from the group consisting of a streaming videoobject, a streaming audio object, an online presentation, a broadcasttelevision program, an electronic advertisement, and a broadcast audioprogram.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more availablemetrics includes a strength of the correlation of the detected useraction to the one or more retrieved media descriptors.
 20. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the one or more available metrics includes a number ofknown associates of the user that are concurrently performing relevantactions to the media object.